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‘From Secession to Sumter’
The NYTimes continues its series on the Civil War with “The Road from Secession to Sumter.” Read the latest installment here, and get the NYT if you want more.
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2010 additions to National Film Register
Earlier today the Librarian of Congress announced the 2010 additions to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Each year since 1989, twenty-five American films ranging from sixty-second clips to epic Hollywood productions have been inducted into the National Film Registry. This project caught my interest several years…
Read More »Amazon.com and the perfect gift
Yesterday’s Washington Post had a story about Amazon.com applying for a patent on a process to improve the experience of receiving a gift. When a person purchases an item through Amazon and identifies it as a gift to be delivered to another person, Amazon will electronically notify the recipient of…
Read More »E.J. Dionne: Getting the Civil War Story Right Matters
A stereoscopic view: The Ladd and Whitney Monument and burial site in Lowell Massachusetts decorated in remembrance. As the nation is about to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the start of the Civil War, E. J. Dionne, Jr. sounds a warning in his Washington Post column. Don’t spin the story –…
Read More »from ‘Home at Christmas’ by Jack Kerouac
In December 1961, “Glamour” magazine published a prose sketch by Jack Kerouac called “Home at Christmas” in which he recalls a blizzardy holiday scene from his youth in Pawtucketville. The writing is loose and lyrical in his spontaneous prose mode. Following is an excerpt from the sketch, which is available…
Read More »Class Warfare in the Movies – the Lowell Connection
Christian Bale, left, and Mark Wahlberg play brothers who are boxers in “The Fighter.” (Jojo Whilden/Paramount Pictures, via Associated Press) This morning Dick Howe noted for his FaceBook friends that for a recent edition of the New York Times – A. O. Scott has written an essay on class consciousness as reflected in today’s…
Read More »Boxing Day – What’s That?
A group of orphans receiving gifts in East London, 1921 (Topical Press Agency / Getty) Boxing Day is celebrated on December 26 in Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a few other places. It has nothing to do with the sport of boxing. While the exact origins of the holiday…
Read More »Making Merry on Christmas Was a Fineable Offense in Massachusetts
MassMoments reminds us on this Christmas morning that Christmas was not always “merry” in Massachusetts. On Christmas Day in 1659 – the Great and General Court of the then Massachusetts Bay Colony established a fine for anyone making merry or working on Christmas Day. …in 1659, a…
Read More »A Visit From St. Nicholas
TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS ‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their…
Read More »In the Merrimack Valley: Lawrence Bar Owners Pay to Play
Stories in the Eagle-Tribune and the Boston Herald recount the meeting between Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua and owners of bars along Essex Street earlier this week. The Mayor – who last summer laid-off 41 police officers – was looking for money to help pay overtime costs for a special police unit…
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